


If You'd Have Me

by thoughtlessblogger



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Humor, I dunno this is a bit weird, M/M, Marriage Proposal, POV Niall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-02
Updated: 2015-02-02
Packaged: 2018-03-10 06:10:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3279680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thoughtlessblogger/pseuds/thoughtlessblogger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He knows how much Harry and Louis love each other. He can see it in the way they look at each, the way they are with each other, the way they talk about each other.  He knows they've been through hell and back. He's seen what it does to them. But they love each other so much and if their relationship can't survive, none can and Niall would lose all hope.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If You'd Have Me

**Author's Note:**

> So, this was something that I came up with at like two in the morning. I thought it'd be cool to write something from Niall's POV about Harry and Louis. I'm not entirely sure this is what my brain had in mind at two in the morning, but it's still cool. (And I'd actually like to write more from Niall's POV.) I might write more things like this, I don't know.  
> If you'd like, you can find me on tumblr at thoughtlessblogger.  
> Thanks for reading and Enjoy!

When Niall opens the door to the suite, him and Zayn are greeted with a very angry looking Harry screaming at Liam and Louis running out of his and Harry's room.

“How in the hell could you even say that?” Harry yells, face red and arms flailing about at Liam, who's frozen on one of the sofas in the room.

“I'm sorry, Haz,” he spews out. “I just-.”

“You didn't fucking do a thing, Liam,” Harry yells back.

Niall glances at Zayn from the corner of his eye. Zayn's eyes are wide, scanning over the room. He looks as confused as Niall is.

“Are you really that fucking stupid?” Harry continues.

“What is going on?” Niall whispers to Zayn since the others still haven't noticed their presence.

Zayn doesn't answer, just continues watching as Louis glances between Harry and Liam.

He finally walks over to Harry. “Harry, maybe you should cal-.”

“Don't fucking talk to me,” Harry growls at Louis. Then he turns back to Liam. “Maybe you were fucking right,” he says, quiet enough that Niall barely hears it.

Harry turns on his heel, stalking past him and Zayn to walk out the suite, slamming the door.

After Harry's left the room, they sit there in silence – Louis looking utterly heartbroken, Liam still wide-eyed and frozen, and Niall and Zayn exchanging confused, worried looks.

Harry hardly ever yells and when he does Louis always steps in and calms him down – when he's not yelling at Louis that is. But Harry doesn't yell. Not usually, anyway, and especially not at Louis. Well, Niall's never heard Harry yell at Louis like that. Actually, he's never heard Harry yell like that. 

Normally when Harry's angry, like really very angry, he'll raise his voice. And on those rare occasions that he's angry at Louis and yells there's still nothing that vicious to it. 

Zayn gives Niall a look and gestures to Louis and Liam, signaling for him to break the silence. Niall does the same thing back to Zayn. He doesn't want to be the one to deal with Liam's grumbling or Louis's pouting arse. He's had enough of both in the last five years.

They end up gesturing and nodding at each other back and forth until Zayn gets fed up and makes a cutting signal with his hand. He takes a deep breath and steps further into the room, Niall following hesitantly behind him.

“Uh, just out of curiosity,” he starts, gaining Louis and Liam's attention, “what did Niall and I just walk into?”

Liam's form of answering is mumbling under his breath something that sounds like, “Goddamn prick's lost his fucking mind,” but Niall can't be too sure.

Louis sighs loudly. “Harry's mad at me and Liam stuck his nose in.”

Liam's head shoots toward Louis, a fiery look to his eye. “I did not. You two came in not speaking. You hid in your room, leaving me to deal with that maniac. What the hell was I supposed to do?”

“What'd you even say to him?” Niall asks.

Liam turns to look at him. “I just said-.” Liam cuts himself off, shooting a glare at the floor. “He was complaining about Louis. Mind you, he wouldn't tell me what actually happened. So I still don't know,” he directs that last bit to Louis. “But he was complaining about Louis and everything. I asked him if he thought their relationship was really worth it.”

“Oi!” Louis yells, turning on Liam. “Why the fuck would you do that? In what universe would that be okay?”

“Yeah, Liam, what the hell?” Niall adds.

As many times as Harry and Louis have been angry with each other and not speaking and all the shit they've had to go through, neither of them have ever once voiced concern that their relationship wasn't worth it. 

_Because it is_ , Niall adds to himself.

He does know of one time they'd questioned it that Harry had told him about. It was a year or so ago. Apparently, they'd both had a pretty stressful week and it'd just been a conversation they'd had late one night brought on by a bit of alcohol and the stress. According to Harry, the conversation lasted all of twenty minutes and ended with them declaring their love for each other and sex.

“Hang on,” Zayn says, pointing a finger up. “Harry said you might have been right,” he says to Liam. Then he turns to Louis. “What the hell did you do?”

Louis sighs again, sitting next to Liam, arms propped on his thighs, head hanging. “I didn't know, okay?” he mutters. “I didn't know he was being serious.”

“Serious about what?” Niall questions when Louis doesn't explain further.

“He proposed.”

“Ah.”

It's not a surprise, really. Harry and Louis have always been vocal about wanting to get married, especially to each other. What's surprising is the outcome of said proposal.

“He didn't tell me that,” Liam comments solemnly.

“Louis, I think you need to tell us exactly what happened,” Zayn suggests.

“He proposed,” Louis says again. “I thought he was joking at first because he's done it several times. He's always made a joke out of it, you know. How was I supposed to know that he was being serious this time?” he asks, looking up at them.

Niall shrugs. He knows what Louis's talking about. He's been witness to Harry joking about it a lot and Louis's told him about most of the other times. He figures he'd be confused too. He can't blame Louis.

“Anyway,” Louis breathes out. “When he made it clear he was being serious, I said-.” 

Louis cuts himself off, looking back to the floor.

“You said,” Liam prompts.

“I said, “I don't think that's the best idea”,” Louis finishes, looking back up and very much like a scolded child.

Niall's mouth is hanging open. A quick glance at the others confirms they're just as shocked as he is.

“Why the fuck would you do that?” Niall demands.

Louis licks his lips. “Because it's not.”

“Have you gone mad?” Liam asks. “Why is it not the best idea?”

“Weren't you the one that just asked Harry if he thought his relationship was worth it?” Niall asks Liam, who shrugs in response.

“I'm so disappointed in you, Louis,” Zayn says, slowly shaking his head.

Louis stands abruptly. “It's just not. Okay, look. Harry wants a wedding. A big wedding. He wants to send out wedding invitations. Have engagement photos. Invite every single person he knows. Tell the world. And a ton of other shit.”

Niall nods along with what Louis's saying. Harry's openly talked about it – his perfect wedding – Louis's always just nodded along, smiling whenever Harry'd talk about it.

“Me? I don't give a damn,” Louis continues. “I don't care what kind of wedding I have as long as Harry's happy. I want to give Harry the wedding he wants. The wedding he deserves.”

“Did you tell him that?” Zayn inquires, sitting in the armchair closest to Liam.

“He wouldn't let me,” Louis answers.

“Well, maybe if you hadn't started with “I don't think that's the best idea,” Niall interjects, immediately feeling guilty when Louis's face falls. He looks about a minute away from crying.

“I know I fucked up,” Louis replies, grimacing. “He probably won't ever speak to me again.”

Niall rolls his eyes at that. Louis is being overly dramatic. Harry never speaking to Louis again is laughable.

“Well,” Liam starts, standing. “I'll go after him.”

“I don't think you should, mate,” Zayn says.

“Zayn's right,” Louis agrees. “He's mad at you, too.”

Liam frowns, falling back on the sofa.

“I say let Harry cool down,” Niall suggests. “He'll let you talk to him eventually.”

Zayn nods. “Yes. Then you tell him what you told us.”

“Sounds easier than it is,” Louis says. He stands, running his hands up and down his thighs. “I'm going to bed.”

“Really? It's only-,” Liam starts, checking his watch, but cuts off when Zayn kicks him in the shin. “Yeah, okay. Have fun.”

Once Louis's out of the room, Niall sits in the armchair adjacent to Zayn's. 

“Why'd you say that to Harry?” 

He knows Liam hasn't always thought their relationship was worth it. He knows Zayn's thought the same thing. Niall's never thought that, though. He knows how much Harry and Louis love each other. He can see it in the way they look at each, the way they are with each other, the way they talk about each other. He knows they've been through hell and back. He's seen what it does to them. But they love each other so much and if their relationship can't survive, none can and Niall would lose all hope. He'd love more than anything to have a relationship like theirs – without the closeting obviously. He wants someone to love him and to love as much as Harry and Louis love each other. 

Liam blinks at him. “I didn't know what had happened,” he defends.

“You still shouldn't have said it,” Zayn chastises.

“I know,” Liam sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I just hate this shit.”

“So do we,” Zayn says, waving a hand between Niall and himself. “But we don't say shit like that.”

Liam opens his mouth to argue, but Niall stands.

“How about we play some golf?” he asks to stop them from getting into an argument they've had too many times before.

Zayn snorts in disgust. “No.”

Liam shrugs. “Sure.”

“Cool. Meet ya in the car in twenty,” he says as he walks out of the room.

**

When Liam had suggested the five of them take a holiday together they hadn't been very responsive to the idea, just waving him off, all saying a variation of “We spend enough time together”.

Liam had argued, saying, “Come on. It'll be fun. Just the five of us. No work commitments.”

He'd convinced Niall first. Niall knows it's because Liam knew that if Niall was on board with the idea the others would be more receptive.

The more Niall had actually thought about it, the better Liam's idea sounded to him. He'd done his job, helping to convince the others.

Now Niall isn't so sure this was a good idea. Only two days into the trip Louis had managed to inadvertently break Harry's heart. It's been three days since then and they still aren't talking. Much to the dismay of Liam because it's ruining his “Holiday Fun Time” he'd scheduled.

Louis and Harry not speaking ruins the charisma of the group. When Louis and Harry are at odds, they're all affected. 

Harry doesn't act much different when Louis isn't around, but as soon as Louis enters the room, Harry becomes closed off and makes an excuse to leave.

Niall heard him talking to Liam the night before, threatening to go back home. Liam had somehow managed to talk Harry down. Harry won't talk about what's actually happened, though, which is making things worse.

When Louis and Harry are fighting, Louis turns into a shit – a much bigger shit than normal. Louis gets in those moods a lot, but he's always worse when Harry's involved. And the lads usually pawn him off on Niall because he's the best at taking whatever Louis's decided to dish out – unless of course he needs or wants advice, then it's Zayn that gets him. (Liam had once asked him how he felt about that. Niall can't be angry. He knows he's shit at giving advice and he often goes to Zayn for advice himself.)

Thankfully, and somewhat worrying, Louis has kept to himself this time. It's probably something to do with the fact he knows he was wrong and what exactly he did wrong. Niall's not sure how much more Louis can take of it; how much more any of them can take really. It's only a matter of time before Harry lets Louis talk to him again – hopefully.

There was once, a few years back, when Louis and Harry had a falling out. It was something to do with some commitment that Harry had with some model in L.A. It just so happened that it was scheduled at the same time as one of Louis's charity things. Needless to say, it hadn't gone over well with either of them.

When Louis confronted Harry about it in front of Niall and Liam. Harry had become immediately defensive, saying that he had no choice in the matter. Louis replied saying that Harry just didn't care enough, which resulted in Harry yelling that if he didn't care he wouldn't have to fly to L.A. to pretend to be with someone he's not even remotely interested in. They didn't speak for two weeks.

In that particular instance – and many others involving Louis and Harry – Niall felt helpless. He hates seeing his friends go through that. He hates that Harry – when he's allowed to go to Louis's charity events – has to hide, sneaking in and out. He hates that they have arguments over who's going to be seen with who and when and how that cuts into whatever they had planned as a couple. He hates that they have to hide such a huge part of themselves from the world. 

He hates even more that there's nothing he can do about it. He's spoken about it to Zayn and Liam many times over the years. He's told them just how helpless and hopeless and angry he feels about it. They feel the same, always telling him that all he can do is lend a shoulder to cry on and be there for them.

(Good fucking job at that, Liam.)

He tries his hardest to do just that, but it's hard on him, too. He hates seeing his friends like this.

He's broken out of his thoughts by Zayn's door opening. It's a full thirty seconds before a barely awake Zayn actually staggers in, sitting heavily on the stool at the end of the breakfast bar. (Niall was ecstatic when Liam told him they'd have a small kitchenette in the suite. It lets him have a chance to cook and force the lads into trying it.)

“I hate mornings,” Zayn mumbles, slumping over to lean on the counter. “You've no idea.”

“Maybe if you wrote a song about it,” Niall says, pushing his finished bowl of cereal away from him.

“Have they talked yet?” Zayn asks, nodding his head toward Louis and Harry's room.

Niall shakes his head. “Doubt it. Haven't heard yelling. Or sex.”

Zayn hums.

“Is Harry even sleeping in there?”

Zayn looks up at him. “No idea. Maybe we should lock them in a room together.”

“Don't think that'd work, mate. Unless you want them to kill each other.”

“They'd probably just end up shagging.”

“Who'd end up shagging?”

Niall whips his head around to watch Louis walking in.

“You and Harry if we locked you in a room together,” he answers.

Louis shrugs. “Don't think so. He'd probably kill me first.”

“Where's he sleeping?” Zayn asks, slumping over again.

Louis's head tilts to the side. “With me. He waits until I'm asleep to come in, though. And he's been leaving while I'm in the shower.”

Louis says it softly, like, even though Harry doing this hurts him, he can't help but be endeared by it. It tugs at Niall's heartstrings. That fact that Harry thinks Louis doesn't want to marry him, yet is still sneaking to sleep in the same bed. And Louis knowing what Harry's doing, but not being able to fix it because Harry won't talk to him. There's nothing worse.

“Where's he go this early?”

“I wish I were still in bed,” Zayn mutters.

“On his morning run,” Louis answers at the same time the door to the suite opens and Harry comes waltzing in, freezing when he sees the three of them staring at him. “See?” Louis says, waving a hand in Harry's direction.

Harry's wearing basketball shorts and some ratty band t-shirt, covered in sweat. He's got his hair pulled back in a bun. It's in moments like this when Niall really envies Harry's ability to look this good even after he's just come back from a run.

“Lads,” Harry nods at him and Zayn.

Harry doesn't acknowledge Louis, except to sidestep him. Niall barely has time to see the determined, angry look that crosses Louis's face before he's spinning around and grabbing Harry by the elbow.

“No you fucking don't,” he growls, pulling a wide-eyed Harry around to face him. “You don't get to do this anymore. We're going to talk now.”

“I have nothing to say to you,” Harry replies, trying to wrench out of Louis's grasp.

Louis doesn't give in, though, sending the two into a stare down.

Niall leans toward Zayn, whispering, “Should we leave?” 

Zayn shakes his head, eyes focused on Louis and Harry. “If we do it'll draw attention to us and they may never get to this point again.”

Niall looks around the suite. Zayn's right. If they wanted to leave the suite completely they'd have to walk right past them. Even if they wanted to just go to their separate rooms, they'd have to walk past them.

With each passing second, Niall can see Harry's determination to not talk dissolving, until he looks like's about to burst into tears.

“Just let me explain,” Louis says, voice softer.

“What could you possibly have-.”

“I didn't know you were proposing,” Louis says quickly.

Niall hears the sound of a door opening and then a quiet “Oh.”

It's fucking Liam. He's standing in his doorway, eyes wide. 

“How in the hell did you not know that?” Harry asks, incredulously.

Niall gestures for Liam, who's still standing in his doorway, to join him and Zayn quickly. Liam does his best to cross the room without being spotted, but Harry's eyes trail his movements before settling back on Louis.

Once Liam's placed himself between him and Zayn, he whispers, “How long have they been at it?” at the same time Louis says, “Why would I know that's what you were doing?” causing Zayn to face palm.

“Only about a minute,” Niall whispers, leaning his body toward Liam. “You haven't missed much.”

“Good,” Liam nods.

“What?” Harry asks, voice laced with disbelief. “How?”

“Because you've proposed to me before,” Louis answers, throwing his arms up. “And you were always joking,” Louis adds. “You've proposed twenty-three – I've counted! – twenty-three times. And each time I thought there was a small chance you were being serious, but you were only joking! So fucking excuse me for not taking you seriously this time!”

Harry's been biting his lip, watching Louis gesticulate wildly, but as soon as Louis's done Harry launches into his defense.

“It's not my fault you can't discern between my joking and my sincerity.”

Niall's not sure since he can only see the back of Louis's head, but he thinks Louis's just blinking rapidly at Harry.

“Harry's got a point,” Liam mutters, earning him an elbow in the gut from Zayn.

“Okay, maybe that was my fault,” Louis concedes.

“You still didn't have to say you didn't think it wasn't the best idea,” Harry throws at him, voice full of hurt. “What the hell does that even mean?”

“It means,” Louis starts, “that you want a big wedding. You want everything. You want to send out invitations. You want to invite everyone. You want to be able to talk to people and plan. You want doves and you want to do that cake tasting shit that I honestly couldn't care less about. And you want to tell everyone we know. But we can't do that, Harry.”

Louis's back to gesticulating. Every so often he'll throw out his arm, causing Harry to have to lean out of the way, but he's not taking a step back. In fact, Niall thinks they may be getting closer.

“You want all that,” Louis continues. “And I don't want to marry you unless I can give you all that. You deserve to have that, Harry. I want to give it to you. But I can't right now,” he concludes, throwing his arms up one last time. “I went about telling you the wrong way and I apologize for that. I apologize for making you think I didn't want you.”

“You're fucking stupid,” Harry says, a small smile present, face softer than before. 

“Are they actually going to fix this?” Liam asks.

Zayn elbows him again.

“I don't care about any of that,” Harry continues, taking a step closer to Louis. “I don't care who's there. I don't care about the doves. Or the cake thing. The only thing I care about is that it's you.” Harry reaches forward, grabbing Louis's hand, intertwining their fingers. “You are the only thing I care about. I don't want to get married if it's not to you. I want to marry you, Louis. I don't care about that other stuff because I love _you_.”

“Oh,” Louis says so quietly Niall has to strain to hear it. “Guess I was actin' a bit stupid.”

“You think?”

“They both were,” Zayn mutters, leaning back over to rest his head on the counter.

“I love you, Louis.” Harry takes another step closer. “I really don't care about any of that.”

“That's good,” Louis says, reaching into his pocket with his free hand. “Because,” he draws out, pulling out a small box and dropping to one knee.

Liam fucking squeaks in surprise. Zayn sits up, eyes wide and focused. Niall's trying his hardest not to run over and envelop them both in a hug because he's been waiting for this moment for years.

Harry's own eyes are wide, staring down at Louis, mouth slightly open.

Really, this isn't that surprising. Niall's always known that this would happen for real one day. However, Louis has a goddamn fucking ring. It's actually happening.

“When'd he get that?” Liam asks.

Zayn elbows him for the third time, never taking his eyes off of Louis and Harry.

“Harry,” Louis says. “I love you more than anything in the world. And I can't imagine my life without you. Not sure I'd want that life, to be honest. You're the most amazing person in the world and I love you. So if you'd have me, I'd very much like it if you'd marry me?”

“Is that an actual ring?” Harry asks, raising an eyebrow. He's doing a poor job of hiding his excitement. 

“It's the one you wanted,” Louis answers, standing.

“Of course I'll bloody marry you,” Harry says, launching himself at Louis.

Niall always thought a post-proposal kiss would be sweet and PG rated. He was wrong. Very very wrong. Harry and Louis are very much not PG.

“You think they forgot we're here?” Niall asks after a few moments.

Before the others can answer him, Louis's backing him and Harry toward the sofa. When they fall onto it, Louis straddles him.

“Missed your mouth on me so much,” he says between kisses up Harry's jaw.

“Missed your dick in my mouth,” Harry replies, breathlessly.

“Okay,” Zayn says, standing up. “I think we need to go.”

They don't bother responding, quickly following Zayn out of the suite. Once out in the hall, they stop outside the door.

“How long you think they'll be? Because I had stuff planned,” Liam whines.

“I'm glad they're happy,” Niall says, ignoring Liam.

Zayn nods.

“Hey,” Liam starts, as Niall's turning to walk down the hall. “You don't think Louis did all that on purpose do you? Like ticked Harry off so he could be the one to propose?”

Niall hears a smacking sound and Liam yelling “Ow.”

Niall laughs the rest of the way down the hall.


End file.
